Longford's chief planning officer, Mr Donal Mac An Bheatha, has defended himself against claims that it is becoming too difficult to get planning permission for new houses in rural parts of the county. Mr Mac An Bheatha said statistics to be released next month would reveal more planning applications for houses in rural areas were granted this year than before.
"The country is becoming a very wealthy place and people have plenty of money in their pockets, and almost everybody coming in to us is trying to build the largest monstrosity you ever saw," he said.
"In the last two years we have been trying our best to put some sense and some sanity into what's going on. When I came, I decided to set some ground rules. We will give planning permission but you must build a house appropriate to the countryside that fits in and respects and reflects the countryside.
"I would argue against the tendency to pluck houses out of suburban estates and plonk them in the countryside among traditional farmhouses where they stand out like a sore thumb." Mr Mac An Bheatha said he has been "hammered" for his insistence that these guidelines be adhered to but he believes somebody has got to stick their neck out. "I'm doing it for the good of the community at large, not individuals or speculators." He added: "I would accept I'm probably a lone fish out here in the wilderness but I believe people will come back and say I was right in the long term and thank me."
Mr Mac An Bheatha believes the county has already profited from the high standards set by the local authority's planning division. He cited as an example the decision of Cardinal Health to locate in Longford, creating 1,300 jobs over the next five years. "I argue that is because we have high standards," he said.
Mr Johnny Creegan, a farmer from Dromard, has claimed young people are being driven out of the area because they cannot get permission to build houses. He said the area would end up being "an uninhabited oasis for the pleasure and benefit of busloads of gaping tourists".
However, Mr Mac An Bheatha dismissed as "nonsense" any suggestion that he was driving young people out of rural districts. He said the main reasons planning applications were refused was because the development was to be located in a sensitive amenity area; there was poor percolation; or because access to and from the development would be dangerous.
Mr James Bannon, a Fine Gael councillor in the Ballymahnon area of south Co Longford, said the biggest issue on his doorstep was planning. "There are young people totally frustrated with what is happening in our county," he said.
Mr Bannon said he wasn't "all for" ribbon development; he just wanted young people to be able to build houses in the area they grew up in, on sites owned by their parents. Refusing them planning permission was a "disaster" for the future of rural Longford.